Oxnard schools, students band together to help Thomas Fire victims

Volunteers worked at Pacifica High School in Oxnard Thursday to organize and hand out donations to victims of the Thomas Fire.
Alexa D'Angelo

Students collected donations from the community Wednesday and created a distribution center out of Pacifica High School Thursday. The collected items were distributed to people displaced by the Thomas Fire.(Photo: ALEXA D'ANGELO/STAR STAFF)

It started as a handful of students shuffling in a couple of cases of bottled water Wednesday morning.

By Thursday, several hundred students were operating a full-blown distribution center of supplies out of Oxnard’s Pacifica High School for those affected by the Thomas Fire ripping through Ventura County.

Students from across the Oxnard Union High School District and nearby colleges were organizing the tables of donations, assisting families and loading cars that were headed to evacuation centers in need.

“This is the power of the students, they really got on there and pushing this on social media, they started doing great things — students from all these different sites,” said Aaron Ferguson, a teacher at Pacifica High School. Ferguson and the school’s principal, Ted Lawrence, organized the initially small event. “We didn’t expect this. It’s awesome.”

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Students and staff from across the Oxnard Union High School District and nearby colleges worked to distribute donations out of Pacifica High School Thursday to victims of the Thomas Fire.
ALEXA D'ANGELO/STAR STAFF

Students and staff from across the Oxnard Union High School District and surrounding colleges collected donations Wednesday and distributed them to victims of the Thomas Fire on Thursday.
ALEXA D'ANGELO/STAR STAFF

Students collected donations from the community Wednesday and created a distribution center out of Pacifica High School Thursday. The collected items were distributed to people displaced by the Thomas Fire.
ALEXA D'ANGELO/STAR STAFF

Marissa Gutierrez, a sophomore at Pacifica High School, was folding and organizing clothes in the cafeteria Thursday. The items were collected by students for victims of the Thomas Fire.
ALEXA D'ANGELO/STAR STAFF

Students and staff worked Wednesday collecting and organizing donations for victims of the Thomas Fire. Thursday the school was a place for families to come and pick up supplies.
ALEXA D'ANGELO/STAR STAFF

One of the rooms at Pacifica High School was being used to house clothes, toys and blankets Thursday. The items were collected by students and distributed to people displaced by the fire.
ALEXA D'ANGELO/STAR STAFF

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“I came here because I live here,” Medina said. “This is my community. I want to help ... These people deserve it especially after what they went through. ... You never think it’s going to be here. It’s a shock but then you’re so thankful for everyone that just joins in and tries in any way they possibly can.”

As families showed up for supplies Wednesday evening and into Thursday, Ferguson said they were set up with student teams who assessed their needs and started putting together bags and boxes of clothes, food and water for them.

“We wanted it to be as seamless as possible,” Ferguson said. “We also wanted to have that anonymity for those coming in. With so many people helping we are kind of able to be discreet.”

Ferguson said that between Wednesday and Thursday afternoon the donations from the school had gone to help around 200 families. Other donations were distributed to more than 10 facilities, community centers and churches in Ventura, Santa Paula, Ojai and Carpinteria. He estimated the value of the donations at the school somewhere around $100,000.

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Bill Slaughter, looks at his burned office at Sisar Canyon Road, where he kept all his rescue, climbing and backpacking gear. Slaughter is the captain of the Upper Ojai sheriff’s search-and-rescue team.
JUAN CARLO/THE STAR

Sage Joyner hugs Karin Dron, who lives on Gridley Road near Ojai. Dron returned to her home Thursday and found that it had survived the Thomas Fire. The stone house was built in 1932 by her late husband's father.
JUAN CARLO/THE STAR

Bill Slaughter, looks at his burned office on Sisar Canyon Road where he kept all his rescue, climbing and backpacking gear. Slaughter is the captain of the Upper Ojai sheriff’s search-and-rescue team.
JUAN CARLO/THE STAR

Gabriela Gutierrez, of Santa Paula described losing her home to the Thomas Fire as she and her family settle in at one of the city's evacuation centers on Thursday. Gutierrez found out the trailer home she shared with her husband and two kids burned down on Tuesday.
RICHARD LUI/USA TODAY NETWORK

Bill Slaughter looks at his burned office at Sisar Canyon Road where he kept all his rescue, climbing and backpacking gear. Slaughter is the captain of the Upper Ojai sheriff’s search-and-rescue team.
JUAN CARLO/THE STAR

Karin Dron, who lives on Gridley Road near Ojai, thought she was saying goodbye to her home when she evacuated with her dog. She returned Thursday to find the Thomas Fire had spared the house.
JUAN CARLO/THE STAR

Karin Dron, who lives on Gridley Road near Ojai, walks near her Ojai home that survived when the Thomas Fire roared through the area. She returned Thursday after having to evacuate.
JUAN CARLO/THE STAR

Johnny Kimmis, left, and his friend Richard Svestka water down the houses along Casitas Vista Road as the Thomas Fire nears. The fire was burning on Red Mountain Fire Road, which is across from his neighborhood.
JUAN CARLO/THE STAR

Johnny Kimmis waters down the houses at Casitas Vista Road on Thursday night as the Thomas Fire gets closer. The fire was burning on Red Mountain Fire Road, which is across from his neighborhood.
JUAN CARLO/THE STAR

“There was this older lady (Wednesday) night and she didn’t have anything,” Medina said. “She didn’t even have a good pair of shoes.”

Medina said students were able to get the woman the things she needed.

Pacifica High School was just one of the schools collecting donations and getting them into the community. Oxnard Union High School Superintendent Penelope DeLeon said almost all of the schools in the district were taking donations in some form throughout the week.

Students were finding ways to help at Hueneme High School, Oxnard High School, Rancho Campana High School, Santa Clara High School and Rio Mesa High School on Thursday, Ferguson said.

“It’s incredible that all of those donations at Pacifica came in one day,” DeLeon said. “It makes me so incredibly proud because I will tell you flat out it’s the kids who are like ‘Let’s do this.’ I have never in my life seen kids who are so community-oriented. The students in this community are amazing.”

Students at other schools in the county were also organizing donation efforts. Westlake High School held a stuff-the-bus event Thursday to gather donations for fire victims. Westlake varsity football coach Tim Kirksey organized the event that collected six school buses, one U-Haul and one trailer full of donations to take to a Ventura church.

Ferguson said he’s proud of the work the students from across the district put in to help their community.

“I wasn’t expecting this at all when we started yesterday,” Ferguson said. “It’s incredible.”

DeLeon said donations at the Oxnard Union High School District schools that haven’t gone into the community by the end of the day Friday will be donated to the Red Cross and to the shelter at the Ventura County Fairgrounds.

The Camarillo Animal Shelter has opened its doors to more than 400 animals for "safekeeping" during the Thomas Fire, including dogs, cats, horses, ponies, chickens, quail, emu and other species. Video by Joe Curley.
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The massive wildfire in Ventura County, north of Los Angeles, grew to 180 square miles and destroyed more than 400 buildings by late Thursday. It's forcing the evacuation of communities between Ventura and Santa Barbara. (Dec. 8)
AP

A Santa Paula Canyon resident and his family returned to their home on Wednesday expecting to find a pile of ash, but instead find their home spared from the massive Thomas Fire and surrounded by devastation.
JUAN CARLO/THE STAR

Southern California officials are warning of unprecedented dangerous winds on Thursday, with gusts possibly reaching 80 mph. The region is dealing with several massive wildfires that have around 200,000 under evacuation orders. (Dec. 7)
AP

Scores of displaced families people and their pets arrived at the Ventura County fairgrounds on Tuesday in the wake of the massive Thomas Fire that has swept through the area destroying homes.
CHUCK KIRMAN/THE STAR

Officials hold a late night press conference on the progression and dangers of the Thomas Fire, which started near Santa Paula and quickly spread to Ventura and parts of the Los Padres Forest on Monday night.
MEGAN DISKIN/THE STAR